Combat.mp2
Jump to Combat Strength Modifications 'Basics' A unit can't enter a tile occupied by an enemy unit. If ordered to do so, it will attack, locking the units in combat until one is destroyed. An attack costs the aggressor one movement point, and it can also lose move points proportional to the damage it suffers. Attacking a tile does not move there — the surviving unit remains where it was. Some restrictions upon warfare are obvious — units must have a nonzero attack strength to attack, while defenders with zero defense lose immediately. There are also limits upon which units can attack which others. Most Land units can only attack other Land units. Most ships can attack other ships and also Land units. Helicopters can attack Land and Sea units and can be attacked by any kind of unit (Land, Sea, or Air). Bombers and Missiles can attack any Land or Sea unit. Fighters, Marines, and Anti-Aircraft Artillery can attack most kinds of unit (except Submarines.) Aircraft in cities and air bases are on the ground. Only in this case, they can be attacked by land. Ships in port are also vulnerable and suffer defense penalties. The Marines unit and Anti-Aircraft Artillery unit can attack targets from aboard ship or Helicopter; other Land units must disembark and wait one turn before engaging enemy units (unless the ship first docks at port inside a native or allied city.) There are two other actions related to combat. A unit ordered to S'entry remains in place indefinitely and no longer asks for orders each turn. Sentry units can be reactivated manually (by selecting them), or activate automatically if an enemy unit comes into view or if they have finished healing. Land units can be ordered to '''F'ortify,' which means they spend one movement point preparing to be attacked; once fortified they enjoy the same +50% advantage as land units in an unwalled city. A unit whose movement points are exhausted cannot fortify — it must have movement left at the end of a turn to begin the next turn fortified. 'Spies in combat. Spies can harm enemy units by doing sabotage. Combat Mechanics Each unit begins combat with one or more hit points, which are the amount of damage it can sustain. (See the units page for stats on each unit type.) Combat consists of successive rounds of violence between the units, which cannot be interrupted and ceases only when one unit is reduced to zero hit points and dies. (The exception is most ancient sea units, which can go for a maximum of 15 combat rounds.) ''In each combat round, only one unit succeeds in wounding the other. The damage a unit inflicts with each blow is called its ''firepower. Which unit inflicts damage on any given round of combat is random. The attacker has a chance proportional to his attack strength, while the defender's chance is proportional to his defense strength. For example, on an open field with no other bonuses: Archers (attack strength 3) attacking a Phalanx (defense strength 2) will have a '''⅗ chance of inflicting damage each round, while the phalanx has a ⅖ chance. Tired attack. Units attacking with less than one full movement point get penalized because of their tiredness. Only a fraction of their normal attack strength is considered. If they have ⅔''' movement points, they will attack with '''⅔ strength. If they have ⅓''' movement points, they will attack with '''⅓ strength, etc. Besides "tired attack", there are many factors which affect unit strength, which are summarized in the tables below: Combat Strength Modifications These factors are combined. A city with walls which is built on a hill with a river gives 3×2×1.33 = 8× defense. Fortified units receive no bonus in a city: the effect of being in a city can be considered a "free fortify bonus." When a Land unit's 3x bonus from City Walls is invalid because attacked by Air, Sea, or Howitzers; the defending unit gets the 1.5x city bonus instead. A defending unit never receives both the 1.5x and the 3x bonus simultaneously. The page on [[Bases.mp2|'Base bonuses and behaviour']] provides a reference chart for the bases mentioned above. There are more circumstances that result in adjustments to combat: Promotions General Promotions. Most units have a chance to be promoted to a higher veteran level when they survive combat. This gives them stronger attack and defense (see above.) With two exceptions, all promotable units in the game have the following chances of promotion: Air Promotions. Offensive Air units' promotions are slightly lower, to balance getting many more attacks per turn: Marines' promotion rates represent the arrival of better weapons in the later game: Marines' veteran bonuses represent special ops forces receiving better late game weapons: Note: 1. Marines are the strongest foot unit available. 2. On average, a Veteran Marine will need 5 successful battles to arrive at Ranger, where only then it can defend slightly stronger than older cheaper Alpine Troops; and 93% the strength of a cheaper veteran Mech. Inf. 3. A Veteran Marine requires 556 successful battles on average to become Navy SEAL, a very rare unit which attacks at 89% the strength of a green howitzer. 4. Thus, the rare and late-arriving bonuses for Marine foot soldiers are useful more for multipurpose special ops and not for overall strength. Healing Units remain damaged after losing hit points in combat, and will enter later combat at a disadvantage. Damaged Land and Sea units begin each turn with fewer movement points than normal, in proportion to what fraction of their total hit points remain. To regain hit points they must spend turns neither moving nor attacking, and regain health each turn according to the table below: If you sentry a damaged unit, it will become active and request new orders after its hit points are fully restored. You may produce new V1-Veteran units in a city if it has the appropriate building for its type: | |- | |} | |} *Marines made in a city with Barracks III, Port Facility, AND Airport come out V2. Stack-Kill, Stack-Escape; Cities, Forts, Fortresses One unit defends a stack. ' When several units on the same tile are attacked, the unit most capable of defense protects the entire tile. More precisely, for all defenders on the tile which can defend against the attacker, winning chance is calculated to the precision of 0,001%. ''If several units have similar results, the cheapest unit defends first. '''Stack-Kill If defenders are inside a City, Fort or Fortress, a lost battle only kills one defending unit. Otherwise, loss of the defender results in Stack-Kill: the loss of every attackable unit on the tile. When a unit carrying other units is in combat, only the attacking unit participates in the engagement, and its passengers are lost if it loses. Stack-Escape Air and Sea units (from Galleon onward) can sometimes survive a Stack-Kill event. When they are present in a stack whose defender has died, they have a 50% chance to escape to an adjacent tile if and only if they have more remaining movement points than the attacker. This simulates the ability of Air and Sea units to escape in multiple directions if "faster" than the attacker, realistically enabling much needed "escort dynamics" in air/sea mechanics. City Population Loss. '''When a City with no walls loses a unit, one citizen is lost if the attacker was a Land unit*. Once the last defender has fallen you may enter the city and claim it as your own with either a Land unit or Helicopter: ships and aircraft can assault cities but not take them. A captured City loses 1 population, which destroys a City if it is size 1. Upon capture of a City, each building has a 20% chance of being destroyed, and the victor may steal a technology held by the losing nation. = ''*Knights cause population loss only during city capture, not when killing units inside the city.'' = '''Forts[[Bases.mp2| and Fortresses]]. '''Building a '''Fort requires Masonry. A Fortress requires an existing Fort and Construction. To build one of these, move Settlers, Workers, Legions, or Engineers to a tile and give the order. A Fort or Fortress can go anywhere except on a city-center or in water. There are four buildings which improve the strength of units who are attacked inside the city: | |- | | |} Note: the Great Wall wonder counts as City Walls. Gibraltar Fortress counts as Coastal Defense. Nuclear Combat Nuclear bombs and missiles do not engage in combat like other units — they either strike within range of an SDI Defense and are harmlessly destroyed, or detonate and blast the entire 3x3 area centered on the unit or city they attack. Within the blast area all units are destroyed, cities lose half their population, and each land tile has a 50% chance of becoming polluted with fallout. Fallout raises the chances of nuclear winter — rather than coastlines becoming jungles and swamp, terrain begins changing into desert and tundra. Settlers, Workers, and Engineers must be given the clean fallout command to dispose of nuclear waste, which costs three settler-turns per tile. Bombardment Multiplayer rulesets do not allow 'bombardment' except in one special case. Archer units may do a Ranged Attack which disperses their arrows to all units on a tile, but for only one round of combat. The result is that the units who are successful hit lose 1 hitpoint. Neither the Archer or units who failed to be hit are affected. The Archer will lose all movement points after doing the Ranged Attack. Capturing Units. The following units may be captured, which converts them into your own units: * Workers * Explorer * Caravan, Freight To capture a unit requires a foot soldier or mounted unit whose attack value is 3''' or higher. Units on a tile with other units may not be captured. Units on Mountains terrain may not be captured. Expelling Units. The following units may be expelled from your nation, which sends them back to their home country: * '''Settlers, Well-Digger, Workers, Engineers * Diplomat, Spy * Caravan, Freight * Explorer, AWACS To expel a Land unit requires any Land-based military unit except Warriors. Units on Mountains terrain may not be expelled. Units on a tile with other units may not be expelled. Expelling an AWACS requires a Fighter-type unit.